GARY’S 2022 FOOD FAVORITES IN NEW TAMPA & WESLEY CHAPEL

Gary’s Favorite New Restaurants In

Gary’s Favorite Appetizers In NT & WC

Gary’s Favorite Entrées In NT & WC

The Living Room

Among the few categories where our readers who voted in this year’s Dining Survey & Contest and I agree is that this year’s most anticipated new restaurant is now also the best of the many outstanding newcomers in our two distribution areas

The Living Room, although it doesn’t yet have the same variety as the restaurant’s original location on Main St. in Dunedin, has a number of great appetizers, entrées and craft cocktails that definitely have people talking.

Among my favorite dishes at The Living Room are the flash-fried pork dumplings, the brown butter scallops, the molasses-braised pork osso bucco, the “you bet churrasco” and the spicy chargrilled pork chop shown above. The Living Room is still working out some of its service issues, but the place has a great vibe and tasty food.

Three KRATEs finish 2nd, 3rd and 5th on my list below — Blush Wine Room, Pisco Express and Ato (see pg. 14 for details). And, three new Asian additions to the New Tampa dining scene — Ha Long Bay, Tessa’s Sweet Kafe and Oishi Express (see how these finished among my Asian favorites in both of our markets on pg. 22) — all also made my top-six favorite new eateries. With more newcomers on the way, next year’s newby list should be interesting, too.

Pork Gyoza At Zukku-San

The two categories we got rid of when we tabulated the results of our 2022 Reader Dining Survey were Favorite Appetizer and Favorite Dish, because so many of you didn’t tell us the restaurants where you enjoyed your favorites.

Well, one reason we originally included the category was because I have so many favorites of my own that I wanted to hear yours.

But, while it didn’t work out for all of you, I still wanted to tell you mine and there’s no doubt that Jannah and I are most addicted to Zukku-San’s fried pork gyoza dumplings. They’re so crispy, so flavorful, with a ponzustyle dipping sauce that also is served with Zukku-San’s a la carte tempura appetizers, which just missed making this list — as did the restaurant’s crispy veggie spring rolls — although I did also have to include Zukku’s unique beef tenderloin yakitori at #5 on this list.

I also chose the true NY-style Chinese egg rolls at Liang’s (but didn’t include Liang’s excellent BBQ spare ribs), the seared ahi tuna at Stonewood (which just topped Treble Makers’ ahi), the perfect Sam’s meatballs at Falabella Bistro (beating out Noble Crust’s) and my new fave fish ceviche at Pisco Express, which just beats out Lima’s.

Coconut Curry Grouper At Treble Makers

As someone who always believed they hated curry, I was shocked at how much I loved it after Treble Makers chef Kevin Maggard told me that if I didn’t like his coconut curry grouper, he would buy it from me and bring it home to eat it himself. And now, the Treble Makers dish is both mine and Jannah’s favorite single entrée anywhere in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel.

When Treble Makers had both the grouper and their unique wahoo bianco on the menu, we used to switch back and forth between the two, but even though Kevin says the wahoo will make a comeback this summer, for now, his grouper is our go-to fresh fish dish in our two areas.

Stonewood narrowly grabbed the #2 spot with its new Manhattan strip, a unique take on the traditional NY strip which barely beat out the tasty new tomahawk ribeye at The Grill at Morris Bridge, which just missed having a 2nd top-6 entrée with its parmesan-and-bacon-crusted mahi. My #4 favorite is the super-crispy Korean-style fried chicken at Tessa’s Sweet Kafe. And, although I also love the linguine with clams at Falabella’s, I think it falls just short of the same dish at both Via Italia and Frammi. Also just missing the list was the tender filet at the revamped Dempsey’s Too.